Rep. Jayapal Criticizes Biden Administration’s Approach to Immigration as ‘Heavy-Handed’

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., this week raised “serious concerns” about President Joe Biden’s administration, which she criticized as “heavy-handed” in enforcing immigration laws.

“The Biden administration is enforcing immigration laws,” Jayapal said during an immigration subcommittee hearing on Thursday. “In fact, the administration has been so heavy-handed in recent months that I have serious concerns about how they are conducting border enforcement.”

She added: “Since the end of Title 42 last year, the Biden administration has removed or returned to Mexico over 400,000 individuals, including over 65,000 individual members of family units, including children. This total is nearly equivalent to the number of people removed in all of fiscal year 2019 under Donald Trump, so the idea that the administration is not enforcing the law is ridiculous.”

Jayapal later wrote on social media: “The idea that our economy is hurt by immigrants in any way is an absurd, factually inaccurate talking point from extreme MAGA Republicans. It is beneficial to them to use immigrants as a political football to rile up their base with hateful rhetoric, all while they sit here and complain that we aren’t getting anything done.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., also criticized the Biden administration recently over its consideration of “harmful policies similar to Title 42 that would terrorize immigrant families, gut our asylum system, and scare folks from seeking the critical protections they need,” in a joint statement pushing the Senate to “reject anti-immigrant proposals.”